Su-24 Fencer
The Soviet swing-wing bomber Ukraine turned into its hardest punch — a 1970s tactical strike jet improbably re-armed with British Storm Shadow and French SCALP cruise missiles, which it has used to gut Russia's Black Sea Fleet. The most obsolete airframe became the most potent strike system.
The Soviet swing-wing tactical bomber that Ukraine improbably turned into its single hardest-hitting weapon — a heavy 1970s strike jet re-armed with British Storm Shadow and French SCALP-EG cruise missiles, then used to strike deep into occupied Crimea and gut Russia's Black Sea Fleet, including its Sevastopol headquarters. In the words of one analysis, Ukraine took "the most obsolete aircraft they have" and made it "the most potent strike system they have."
Overview
The Su-24 (NATO: Fencer) is a twin-engine, two-seat, variable-geometry ("swing-wing") tactical strike bomber — the Soviet rough analogue to the American F-111. Designed for high-speed, low-level penetration to deliver ordnance under enemy radar, it was for decades the Soviet and Russian air forces' principal tactical bomber. Ukraine inherited a Fencer fleet in 1991 and, by 2022, regarded it as an aging, attrition-prone type. Its war changed in mid-2023, when Ukraine integrated Western air-launched cruise missiles onto the Su-24, making it the launch platform for the longest-range standoff weapons Kyiv possessed — and, with that, one of the most strategically consequential aircraft of the war despite being one of its oldest.
Development
The Su-24 first flew on 17 January 1970, entered service in 1974, and was built until 1993, with roughly 1,400 produced, per Wikipedia. Sukhoi designed it around variable-geometry wings — spread for takeoff and low-speed handling, swept back for high-speed dash — to give a heavy ordnance load the ability to penetrate at low level and high speed, a capability the Soviet Union lacked at the time. It matured through the definitive Su-24M (Fencer-D) strike version with the Orion attack radar and Kayra laser/TV designation system, and the Su-24MR (Fencer-E) reconnaissance variant, which carries sensors rather than an attack radar. Ukraine's post-Soviet fleet has been sustained by overhaul, and after 2022 adapted — with notable urgency — to carry Western cruise missiles.
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